Crafting Visual Stories with Data is a document that discusses how to craft effective data stories. It begins by showing examples of using visualization techniques like proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast to find patterns in data. It then discusses how stories are more impactful than just presenting raw data because they allow for emotion and empathy. The document outlines different types of visualizations like exhibition, exploration, and explanatory and provides examples of each. It also discusses how stories work by transferring imagery from the storyteller to the listener. The main sections cover how to see patterns in data, show the data visually, tell the story, and engage the audience. It emphasizes establishing focus, integrating text and graphics, using narrative structure and point of view to
2. How many 5’s can you find?
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10. Quote
I think people have begun to forget
how powerful human stories are,
exchanging their sense of empathy for
a fetishistic fascination with data,
networks, patterns, and total
information... Really, the data is just
part of the story. The human stuff is
the main stuff, and the data should
enrich it.
- Jonathan Harris
22. Data & Stories
The focus of stories is on
individual people rather than averages,
on motives rather than movements,
on point of view rather than the view
from nowhere,
context rather than raw data.
Moreover, stories are open-ended and
metaphorical rather than determinate
and literal.
24. Living on the edge
5’ 1
6’ 5
5’ 7
5’ 5
5’ 3
6’ 3
6’ 1
5’ 11
5’ 9
6’ 7
Obese
Over
Normal
Under
18 25 30
mass (in kg)
height
(in ft)
25. The Story Mindset
In listening to stories we tend to
suspend disbelief in order to be
entertained, whereas in evaluating
statistics we generally have an
opposite inclination to suspend belief
in order not to be beguiled.
- John Allen Paulos
30. ˌvɪʒʊəlaɪˈzeɪʃən (noun)
Derived from the Latin verb videre, "to look,
to see"
The act or instance to
form a mental image or
picture (without an
object)
Visualization
The act or instance to
make visible or visual
(with an object)
37. /ˈnærətiv / (noun)
A narrative (or story) is any account of
connected events, presented to a reader or
listener in a sequence of written or spoken
words, or in a sequence of (moving) pictures.
Derived from the Latin verb narrare, "to tell"
Narrative
43. “I can take any empty space
and call it a bare stage. A man
walks across this empty space
whilst someone else is
watching him, and this is all
that is needed for an act of
theatre to be engaged. “
- Peter Brook, The Empty Space
Simplicity
88. “I think the trick with knowledge is to
“acquire it, and forget all except the
perfume” — because it is noisy and
sometimes drowns out one’s own
“brain voices”. The perfume part is
important because it will help find the
knowledge again to help get to the
destinations the inner urges pick. ”
— Alan Kay’s advice to Bret Victor
Create your own Path